Shaquille O’Neal affectionately refers to his kids as the Vampire Bloodline. With his own unique style of parenting, Shaq has successfully helped raise six kids. However, his opinion on whether he wanted to have a boy or a girl used to be very different from what it is today.

Earlier, Shaq wanted to have more boys than girls. However, it all changed once he experienced what it was like to be a girl dad. Soon enough, he had a complete change of heart and did a 180 on his choice for kids.

Shaquille O’Neal’s transition into becoming a girl dad

During a recent conversation on the Dear Fathers podcast, Shaq talked about his kids. The Big Man said that his idea of a family has been clear from the very beginning. Shaq draws a lot of inspiration from how his father, a sergeant, raised him. He recalled a lesson from his father, “A man’s job is to protect, provide, and love.” He said, “With me having a daughter, I knew I was going to be super super protective of her”. However, raising a daughter wasn’t on Shaq’s list at the beginning.

Shaq said, “I was pretty selfish. I was like damn, I want a boy, I want a boy. But, my girls…I got a lot more love for my girls.” The Big Man said that having girls softened him up. He said, “Especially when they call you daddy and they’re young and they hold on to you. It was wonderful.” Although he was aware that praising his girls over his boys might backfire on him, he went on to praise his daughters anyway.

Shaq has said on multiple occasions that he has a certain set of rules for his kids like they need to have two degrees before they can get his money and the different eligibility ages for them to date.

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Shaquille O’Neal leads by example

Shaq said that he believes in leading by example and setting a benchmark for his kids. He said, “I not only want to stress education toward them, but I also want to show them. I tell them all the time ‘Our life is not a real-life’.” Shaq said that it is important for his kids to understand that the luxuries they have come from hard work.

So while he highlights the importance of education to his kids, he had to make sure that he has done enough for his own education to be able to preach to them. Surely, the doctorate degree holds a lot of weight around the O’Neal household.

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